Dreamer's Lament
by Ilandere Okami
Summary: This isn't Mu, is it? What if it was all a dream? What if the day that changed Light's whole life turned out to be something that sent him into a coma where he dreamed up six years of his life? One-shot


**Author's Note: To tell you the truth, this started out as a 55-word story inspired by a contest on dA, but the contest was for Matt and Mello only. So, I've decided after a particularly nice comment, to make this into a one-shot story. ^-^ You can find the original 55 words on my dA account, link in profile, alongside the link for my blog, which is pretty important to read for those who like my writing. ((PS, there's hilarity and randomness throughout…blatant advertisement, I know))**

**It actually took me a bit to decide if I wanted him waking up normally in his room, but realized the dream was **_**too**_** detailed. You know? So then, I had to decide to come up w/ a reason behind everything else. I thought why not make it ironic? I decided to, well, not give him a second chance per say, but you can see his thoughts at the beginning—that, btw, I didn't think I was going to write at all anyways. The story's supposed to be **_**after **_**the dream, not during. Oh, well, it fit better w/ the lesson that I didn't know I was giving Light-tan. ^_-**

**And btw, please don't kill me for some of the things that will become clear, namely about L. *sigh* It just worked out that way…But provided some comedy towards the end.**

**Warnings: Implied character death, an insult to poor Matt ((come on, Light wouldn't know his name!)), violence and killing, something that accidentally looks like LxLight yaoi, but actually isn't. Seriously, there's no romance.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note. And I don't own this idea either. Nope, but I thought it would make an interesting story. What really happened, however, I did make up, and had fun doing so!**

**_____**

Dreamer's Lament

Ryuk stands over me, cackling slightly. Is this really how it will all end? A bored creature deciding that his latest "toy" has run out of its fun? He thought humans were so interesting, and yet…

Oh, God, I don't want to die. I never wanted to die. I did this for the betterment of the whole world. Just because I wanted to be God of that world doesn't mean that it was all wrong. After all, Kira was viewed as a god, was he not? To die was not godly at all. To be killed…even worse, lower than low.

But I killed. That's how I became this not-god. And L tried to stop me…and I killed him. The greatest detective this world has ever known couldn't solve his one last case, and thus wasn't the best; I was. I became the next L, not knowing that he had successors…

In the end, he won. In the end, he knew I would be caught and would die. So what if he didn't do the actual arrest himself? Near…Mello…that weird redhead that I don't know the name of…they sacrificed all they knew and loved to follow in their predecessor's footsteps. Two are dead and the other…will be L. The real L. The one who was trained for this his whole life would take on the role he was denied when I took over.

And so, I lay dying, gunshot wounds torturing me, Matsuda's gunshots tearing me apart. Such a faithful man taken away from me…such a kind man reduced to killing his own friend and colleague…and boss.

But now I'm not his boss. I'm not even in control of myself. My thoughts are racing too quickly to keep up with. I see the notebook falling all those years ago. I feel the unending boredom, the wait. That's what I feel now, the wait to die. I'm in too much pain to know if my heart is failing too.

I can see L…I'm dying; I can see L. I see him in a faint blue shadow, distorted between bars and beams. Say something, L! Say something, dammit! Ryuzaki, don't just stand there! Help me! You're my friend, STOP THE PAIN! The pain that's coursing through my body, starting with my aching heart.

No, don't close your eyes! L, Ryuzaki, you said I'm your first friend! Do you know what that means? It means you're my first friend! You're my…you're my friend…so stop this darkness…from taking me away from you…

}--'---,-----

"Ah…no…I don't want to die…Save me…" I hear those words…are they mine? They sound like my voice. It's completely dark, beeping the only other sound besides me. I'm panting, and my scratchy voice is pleading not to die. Well, no need to do that now. I'm dead. I'm in Mu, right? Ryuk said I'd go to Mu.

L couldn't save me; I knew it. He didn't care about me. It was all a lie. He couldn't save his friend from dying. But he was dead—how could he save me? Ah, my brain is really going a lot slower right now, as if just waking up. I'm not a morning person after all.

"What was he saying?" I hear. It sounds like my mother. My mother in Mu? She is the only one completely alive, though. That makes no sense either.

Another voice answers, closer to me, more high-pitched and sweeter, a young girl's, "Something about not wanting to die and wanting someone to save him." The voice sounds familiar, almost like Sayu's when she was younger. Is this a dream?

"Maybe he's waking up finally…" my dad sighs. No! He's dead! This has to be a dream! I was the one who sent him to his death, in the name of justice. He was the one who decided to take the Eyes, but…nevertheless, he is dead, and therefore this must be a dream or some nightmare Mu has set upon me.

Footsteps. "You called for me?" an unfamiliar male voice says. I cannot identify it, no matter my vast memory.

"Yes, he-he started talking in his sleep." Stop talking, Father…you're not alive. Stop torturing me like this…

More footsteps and the other man says, "A commonality in REM sleep. Remember, I told you this when he spoke towards the beginning. What was he saying this time, nothing about death, I hope." REM sleep…Rem the shinigami, the one I killed by forcing her to kill L out of love for Misa…

"Uh…" Sayu's younger self stalls.

"It was different this time," my mother answers. "He wasn't talking about killing others and writing death notes; it wasn't suicide…not this time…not this time…" Her voice trails off to sobs, which are soon muffled. My dad—not my dad, a memory, just like L was before I was taken here through the darkness—must have wrapped her in his arms. Suicide? I didn't talk about suicide ever! But Death Notes… I'm not suicidal, and never was. Just bored with this world. It's the others I wanted to kill, not myself.

My dad finishes, "This time he was saying that he wants saving, that he doesn't want to die…What made the difference, Doctor?" No, no, Doctor? No, that makes no sense…

"Perhaps he is actually waking up?" the "doctor" responds. "I can't say, but his readings are picking up slightly. See, right before you called me, his heart was going haywire and stopped suddenly, right? That's why you called for me. But then it started up again at a slightly faster pace. I can't say why exactly he had such symptoms, but I believe that was his body's way of waking up his mind."

W-waking up? Does that mean I've been asleep? But still, if I'm dead, what is this saying? Unless that isn't my dad or Sayu and just some other people with my mom, and therefore I didn't…really…die…

Unconsciously, my breathing picks up. I begin hyperventilating, uncomprehending. Didn't really die, that's impossible! I died; I felt it! I saw L watching me, even though he was dead! This isn't Mu…this is hell. A hell where my family cares for me again, loves me again, doesn't know what I've done, who I've killed…

"What's going on?!" Sayu's worried. I can hear a gasp come from my mom, and I feel—yes, feel a warm hand grasp my wrist, another against my forehead. Warmth…I need it so badly, have needed it for so long…And now I finally get it when it's too late.

I begin whimpering. No need to care about weakness, pride, and the like here, after all. No need for such stupid things. They're not needed when you're dead. I whimper and stir, thrashing. I want to wake up, open my eyes. I want to see the faces, no matter how temporary they may be, of my family. My old happy family, before…before I messed things up.

I can't get enough air, not enough oxygen is coming to me. Something snaps out of my arm, like a shot, a needle. The beeping near me becomes wilder, just as my heart rate speeds up. I can feel the organ, the one that was supposed to have died along with the rest of me forty seconds after Ryuk wrote my name down in his Death Note, beat painfully inside and against my chest.

"S-save meeee…" I somehow get out through my convulsions. "Ryuzaki…R-Ryuzaki…" Something scratches against my face and I can breathe normally again. I can hear the voices of those who have surrounded me, but the sounds are garbled up; I can't discern them from one another. I can't even think anymore.

All I know is that I want somebody to save me. Somebody who knows me, knows of my faults, but doesn't care, will still try to befriend me. Someone who wants me to be who I am, without my damn delusions of the perfect world getting in the way…God dammit, save me, L!

-----,---'--{

Darkness had engulfed me again, but finally, I can think clearly. I can hear normal breathing, breaths I can identify as my own. I can hear others' breathing too. The beeping is still there, beeping I can finally identify as being machines. One sounds along with my heartbeat—no matter how impossible that is.

So…I am hooked up to a heart monitor in a hospital. That's all I know now. And that there are people near me. Are they the same strangers as before? They could be figments of my imagination. I could have dreamed all this up…Or I could really be in Mu and this is what I must get for the rest of eternity.

Maybe I can open my eyes this time. I try. I can feel them open, see a difference in the darkness around me, somewhat brighter.

A ceiling is above me and my eyes scan my surroundings the best they can without moving my head. I think I can see the top of a window, curtains keeping out the dark night. So, it's night and I'm in a hospital with a breathing mask strapped to my face. And I think there's an IV or two in my arm.

My eyes close again, tired of straining to keep open. Glimpses of the past few years flit through my mind, memories of people and things, emotions and settings. Everything's blurred, as if I can't remember very clearly.

One memory stands out the most. The day I picked up the Death Note. I can see it falling from the sky outside the window. I can see my hands pick it up, curious. I can see the name—as clear as day—scrawled on the front cover.

_Death Note_

Things become blurry. Am I opening the book? I squint in my memory to see. There's writing…on the white pages…names…I can hear a shout, several shouts. Someone with wild black hair and bright white shirt comes to grab the book away from me.

A bang sound. I'm falling…I see darkness…and bare feet partially hidden by blue jeans…I can see that same someone who'd tried to steal the notebook from me dying in front of my eyes, and then a scary man coming into my line of sight, cackling slightly. He says something; I can't hear. But the voice echoes through my head, becoming clearer the more I try to run from it.

"…So much fun, Kira…"

My eyes snap open and the ceiling is greyer than I remember it from being just a few minutes ago. The curtains are much brighter. The sun must be rising. Where am I again? Oh, yes, a hospital.

A grunt and snore disrupts the silence of the twilight. I can hear the rustling of someone moving in his sleep. The snore reminds me of my dad's, from when I was young and had bad dreams of shinigami coming to kill me—how ironic—and needed to fall back asleep in my parents' bed.

I dare turn my head to the side—it's oddly numb, so the only way I know that my head is actually turning is my increased vision of my surroundings. I can see I'm lying on a white bed, definitely a hospital bed, and two figures are sitting slouched in chairs beside the bed.

One is a larger person, a man, and I can sense the snores coming from him. The other is more petite, a woman. The man grunts again, a hike in his snoring, and he moves again. This time, he drowsily lifts his head slightly.

The dim light coming through the window curtains allows me to see the glint of glasses falling from his nose slightly. He mumbles something that sounds like, "Keep fighting, Light. We'll catch those guys…" His voice reminds me so much of my dad's, and he talks to me as if reassuring me. After his words, he sinks further into his chair and falls back asleep.

He didn't even know I was awake. I resist the urge to sigh, knowing with the breathing mask, it would be only cumbersome. Still, my head is completely numb as I move it back to stare at the ceiling, rolling more to look at the window.

My mind begins to pick up speed. What day is today? It feels too real to be some figment of my imagination forcing me to suffer for eternity in Mu. After all, Mu is nothingness, and thus cannot be this. But a user of the Death Note must go to Mu, neither heaven nor hell. What does this mean?

The man who seems so much like my dad…what did he mean? _Keep fighting…_That makes no sense. What am I fighting against? Against Kira? Against the odd numbness that must be why I'm in the hospital? Matsuda didn't shoot me in the head. He shot me in the arm though.

I try moving that same arm that I had been clutching perhaps only the previous day, maybe a few before that. Besides the dull ache spreading from moving joints that haven't moved on their own accord in ages, I feel no reason to suspect a gunshot wound. And I can feel fabric rubbing against my skin there, so it's not numb like my head.

What guys was my dad referring to? Catch whom? Near and the SPK or Matsuda and the other Task Force members? Were there others involved that I hadn't anticipated, hadn't planned?

I come out of my thoughts temporarily to register the light coming from the curtains is brighter and more yellow. The new day has begun finally and the two people next to me should be waking soon.

I hear footsteps outside my door and quickly roll my head back to face the ceiling again, closing my eyes to feign sleep. A door is opened and several people—from the sounds of the shoes—walk in. Another grunt and snort comes from "my dad" and he finally awakens.

"Oh, come to check on Light, Doctor?" he asks, still sleepy.

A pause that I assume is filled with the doctor's nod is followed by, "And I found these two sitting in the waiting area."

"Hi! Is Light-nii-chan okay? Has he woken up yet?" Why does it have to sound so much like the old Sayu? She must be, anyway, to call me her older brother.

The woman who must be "my mom" replies tiredly, "No, not yet, sweetie." Actually, I have, but I want to know the full situation before doing anything drastic. The only information I have is that my dad is alive, my sister is younger, and my mom is here, all three with me as I'm in the hospital with a numb head and no gunshot wounds that I can remember, and that I've apparently talked in my sleep about the Death Note and they mistook it for suicidal thoughts.

"I can't thank you enough for taking care of Sayu while we stay here, Matsuda," my dad says. Matsuda's here, too? Well, it is kind to take care of Sayu I guess, but still…it feels so…normal. He shot me and here he is waltzing into my hospital room with my sister in tow.

"Ah, it's nothing, Chief." Yes, that is definitely Matsuda's voice. "We better get going, that case isn't going to solve itself, you know," he adds. What case now? The Kira Case was solved, though, wasn't it?

My dad grunts once more and he must be trying to get out of his chair, still stiff from a night of sleeping in such an uncomfortable position. "Yes, I guess it's time to go. Goodbye, Sayu, Sachiko. And don't worry, Light," he adds to my "sleeping" form, "we _will_ catch those men for you. Keep on fighting." Two pairs of footsteps leave and my dad and Matsuda must be gone.

Again, what men? And against what am I fighting?

"Things seem to be going fine, though his heartbeat and breathing did speed up slightly at about the time I came in just now, meaning that he must be registering noises. Why not talk to him? He might be able to hear." The doctor leaves.

Things are silent for a while, until there's the sound of zipper being undone. Papers rustle and my mom asks what Sayu is getting out of her backpack. "Well, the doctor said that we should talk to him, and what better way than him helping me with my homework?" They both laugh and I fight the urge to crack a smile. So like Sayu…

My sister begins to spit out numbers and problems and I really wish to answer them for her. But, for one, she'll never learn if I help—though this still isn't real, I don't think, and thus means nothing if she learns or not—and two, I want to pretend to be asleep still.

A few hours later, a phone rings and my mom answers it. I only know that it is hours because before she answers, she glances at the clock and pronounces it's my dad's lunch break. "Oh, nothing new. You haven't missed anything except math homework, dear…Sayu's, obviously…How's the case going? Has he figured out any new clues? …That darn L; he started working on the case two months ago and he still hasn't solved it? …Well, I want him to catch those horrible men who did this to our Light, of course! …They brought such a horrendous crime to a _school_, of all things! Catch them!" The sound of a phone shutting.

Two gasps resonate throughout the room. I think it's because I just gagged on my own saliva. I can't contain myself anymore, and am practically choking. I begin coughing and reach up to pull the mask from my face, sitting up in the process.

"Light!"  
"Light-nii-chan!"

I feel two pairs of arms wrap around me, one hitting my back slightly to help, the other just holding onto me. When I can finally breathe normally, I open my eyes. I'm surrounded by people, enough to be claustrophobic. My eyes bug out and I begin hyperventilating again.

"Give him room!" a man orders. The voice sounds like the doctor's I've heard already. The man that had called the order doesn't move, but several unfamiliar women and men back off. Two others step back slightly, but not as much. A younger, less stress-aged Mom and a junior-high Sayu, both from six years ago.

I stare straight at Sayu's worried face. I've heard her voice so much today, but her face is what gets me. She's so young… "Sayu…" I breathe, a real smile resting on my lips. The smile seems so different from the ones I've been giving for so many years, even before I found the Death Note. I turn to face my mom. Her eyes are brimming with unshed tears. "Mom…" My smile widens.

The doctor comes into my line of vision and forces me to lie down again. Only then do I realize how dizzy I am. He begins checking all the monitors along with some of the others—nurses, no doubt—though some have left.

I just look around the room silently, focusing on my breathing and taking in what my mom had just said.

L is working on a case…with my father…L's not dead…but it could be Near working as L…but my dad's not in the NPA anymore, and he certainly wouldn't have L work on another case with him. And what crime was brought to a school? What horrible men did what to me? Matsuda's the one that shot me, dammit! And Aizawa's the one who betrayed me!

After a while, the doctor questions, "What happened that made him act like that?"

My mom shrugs and shakes her head. "Sayu's been doing her math homework aloud all morning, but my husband called to see how Light was. As soon as I hung up, he started choking and woke up! He's going to be alright, right?" she asks worriedly.

The doctor nods his head slowly, trying to figure out what had happened. Just ask me and I'll tell you…maybe. Will I tell them that I think this is all a crazy delusion and I'm really dead after being Kira, a mass murderer for six years, trying to be God, oh, and don't let Sayu go near Matsuda; he tried to kill me. And that L that Dad's working with now is actually the third L, seeing as I was the second L after I killed the first one.

A few tense, silent moments pass before a police siren blares from outside. Everyone freezes in fright, me included. Soon, the siren stops and all is still. Only a minute later, my dad runs through the door to the room, panting, sweating, and staring right into my eyes.

"Light…" he pants out. "Oh, God, Light!" He rushes to my bedside and grabs one of my hands. "I came here as quickly as possible! You woke up! You're all right! How's your head? Does it hurt? Doctor, give him more painkillers! Light, what happened? Can you tell us what happened? What did they look like? If you tell us, we might be able to find them quicker. L said that he wants to talk to you personally! Isn't that amazing? Of course, it will be through his computer, but that's as personal as he gets, right?" He laughs slightly, nervously. All his words and sentences run together, smiling in happiness.

L wants to talk to me? No way, not going to happen. He'll only rub in my face that he won and I lost in the end. My eyes widen and I pull my hand free from my father's death grip, shouting, "NO!" everyone stares at me with worry. "I'm not talking with L!" I clarify. My voice is horribly rough. How long _have_ I been out?

"What do you mean, son?" Dad asks me. His eyes are scared and troubled. But his hair isn't as grey as it had gotten during the Kira Case, I realize now. Really, what is going on?

I give him a look that all but screams, "Are you mad?!" Instead of yelling that, however, I answer, "He'll only rub it in my face! He won in the end, and I lost! Why would I want some L-clone to gloat how my men turned on me? On how I'll never be God? Dammit, stop with the illusion!" My hands reach up to cover my ears and I squint my eyes shut. "You're dead! Sayu's emotionally traumatized for life and I'm fucking dead! That damn shinigami killed me once I lost! L won! I killed him and he still beat me. I'm the reason Sayu was kidnapped and now she's a happy kid again. I sent you to your death and here you are trying to help me, Dad…" I start to choke back sobs. "Stop with the torture…I thought Mu was nothingness…"

Everyone is silent, waiting for me calm down. This just makes no sense. Finally, the doctor says quietly, "They _did_ shoot him in the head. He's probably been picking up bits and pieces of what all of us have been talking about around him, including L. I believe _he_, however, is the one who was traumatized. I'm no psychologist, but maybe whatever events that led to his near-death have somehow created a dream world in which everything has melted together into a believable story, at least to him."

What are they talking about? What happened, dammit?!

There's a knock at the door and a man shadowed in a brown trench coat and hat, holding a laptop in one hand. He looks familiar… "Watari!" I yell once I figure it out, which is rather quickly. His head turns towards me and I have a feeling he is giving me a strange look much like my dad's now.

Finally, he nods his head and brings the laptop to the table at the end of my bed. A nurse fixes my bed so I can sit up while still lying down and then leaves with the doctor. While all this is going on, my dad explains, "Light, I guess you already know this is Watari—though I don't know how—and the computer is a direct link to L, the World's Greatest Detective, but I guess you already know that, too. L's been helping us with the case, which, sadly, now involves you."

The computer is opened and a gothic "L" is centered on the white screen. "Good afternoon, Light-kun," the computerized voice says.

My eyes widen and my breathing starts to pick up. "P-please, don't call me that," I beg. "Not anymore…"

"Hmm…" L muses. "Yagami-san, inform me of what exactly has happened and why he asked me to not call him by a name that I've never once called him to his face before." He sounds just as bossy as I remember. I hate this; I really hate this. It's more torturous than seeing such a sweet-looking Sayu…

"What? Oh, okay then. As soon as I said that you wanted to talk with him, he refused and said that he didn't want you to…rub in his face that you won and he lost. Apparently, he thinks that you're dead and a successor—L-clone, actually—has taken your spot; that he sent me to my death; that Sayu, his younger sister, was kidnapped is now emotionally traumatized; and that he was killed by a shinigami because he didn't become a god…Oh, and he thinks he's in Mu." Well, that is a pretty accurate summary of what I was blabbering about just now, but it's not "apparently" and "I think" because that's what really happened, right?

"I see…" L responds. "Light-kun, you've been in a coma for about two months now. You suffered a bullet to your head; I'm surprised you're still alive. Now, tell us everything that happened before being shot—"

"Matsuda's the one who shot me! And it was in my arm, not my head! He turned on me and started listening to your damn successor!" I can't stand this any longer. Why are they acting like this? I'm fucking dead!

A long pause before L finally says, "Tell me everything you can about the day that your life changed." Well, that is better wording, something we can both understand.

I think for a moment before trying to explain what happened. My memories are beginning to clump together and stretch out in odd ways. The weird jumbled memory from this morning making its way to the forefront, but I try to remember finding the Death Note, and writing down the first criminal's name. "That day…at school, I saw a black notebook fall from the sky…After school, I found it lying in the grass outside and picked it up…"

"Mhm…" L seems to be following so far. Let's see if he remembers the Death Note.

"The cover had in white handwriting 'Death Note.'" I wait to see how he responds. He doesn't. After that, I try to remember what happened, but that's when things get blurry. I know that what really happened was I brought it home and became Kira, but that other damn dream is really pushing through and—

"A dream," I mutter. "It was all a dream…What day is it today? Date and year!"

My dad answers, "It's January 29, 2004. Why, Light?" No, that's impossible. At the earliest, it would be March of 2010, two months after I died…January 28th…I began to wake up yesterday, didn't I? The only thing different is the year.

It was all a dream, a crazy dream involving shinigami, and meeting L, and all that happened to my family…I dreamed it all in the span of two months while I was in a coma from being shot in the head. And that memory from this morning is what really happened…

I take a deep breath and describe the one blurred memory the best I can, adding in commentary about how it played out in my dream as well. "There was writing on the inside. It was a notebook after all. There were names of different people—mostly men—and their pictures and…and how they were supposed to die…and when…The first one I read had a guy killed by…b-by someone inserting air into his veins and thus c-causing a heart…attack…

"In the dream I had, which I think was based after everything, the Death Note was a weapon. The human whose name is written in this note shall die. If you don't specify what kind of death, they die of a heart attack…That Death Note was dropped to earth from the Shinigami Realm…I used to have nightmares about shinigami coming to kill me.

"After reading about several men…including many criminals…and somebody from a company called Yotsuba—which appeared later in my dream, too…—I heard shouts. Someone wanted the notebook back and was willing to use force. I was going to bring this to the police as evidence of a crime, seeing as many of the names written really were dead.

"A man with wild black hair that looked like he never brushed it, and a white baggy shirt and baggy blue jeans…and no shoes…came up to me and tried to take the notebook. The shouts got louder and the guy was the one being yelled at I think, too. He wasn't supposed to have it and neither was I. I think he was supposed to be turning in the notebook too, or something.

"In my dream, L showed his face to the Task Force for the Kira Case—that's the case that I was behind…See, I used the Death Note to kill of criminals, trying to create a perfect world."

"In which you were God," L supplies.

I smile slightly and nod. "Yeah…You took on the Kira Case—Kira was the name the media gave me; I was a savior…But things were getting too hard and I kept outsmarting you because I hacked into my dad's police files—"

"You what?!" my dad screams. Whoops, not the best thing to disclose.

I smile sheepishly and continue, "So finally, you had to work alongside my dad…and Matsuda, Aizawa, and Mogi—Ide left and Ukita was eventually killed by a second Kira—which turned out to be Misa Amane—"

"What?!" This time Sayu yells. "Damn, you really did pay attention to what I was saying all this time. I had a magazine about Misa Misa and was talking about her one day." She might not be so great in math, but Sayu really is smart when she tries to be. I grin at the thought.

My mom scolds her before I continue, "Don't swear, Sayu." She bows her head in apology.

"Please, continue, Light-kun. Your dream as well as what really happened are both quite interesting," L encourages.

"Okay, where was I? Ah, right. So, you showed your face to the Kira Task Force, and turned out to look just like the man trying to take the Death Note from me. …In my memory, there's a bang, someone is shot…I think it's me…And then the other guy who tried to take the Death Note…yeah, he dies right in front of my eyes…In the dream, I manipulated a shinigami into killing L…and he died in my arms…So there was nobody to stop me anymore and I became the next L…Until your real successors tried to stop me…

"Some other guy, dressed in all black…and chains…and very gangly and pale…he towered over my dying body and cackled…He addressed another man…or woman…named Kira. He said something like, 'So much fun, Kira,' and then I fell unconscious. He looked a lot like the shinigami in my dream, named Ryuk. He dropped the Death Note to Earth in hopes of finding an interesting human. He thought humans were…so much fun…In the end, he wrote my name down in his own Death Note, just as he promised from the beginning…

"I was dying anyway, from the gunshot wounds Matsuda had given me when your real successor revealed all the clues that I was indeed Kira. I had already taken your place as L, so…uh…perfect plan, right?" I laugh nervously. "And the L that I had in my dream was waiting next to me as I died…and I think he actually called me his first friend years before that…I died five years after L died…so a little over six years after Kira started…So I kept begging for L to save me, to not let me die…and then I woke up to hearing Sayu, Mom, and Dad talking."

Silence permeates the small room. I continue to stare at the L on the screen.

Finally, he speaks. "First of all, I wish to thank you for all that you have said. It must be painful to talk about all that. One more question, how did Sayu get kidnapped, and why did you father die?"

"Oh, uh…One of your successors kidnapped her…he and his friend died later anyway. And my dad went with the infiltration of that same successor's mafia hideout and was about to write the guy's real name in a Death Note—there were three on Earth altogether, if you don't count Ryuk's that he wrote my name in—when he was shot. He died in the hospital before he could write down the name." I sigh, saddened. I didn't want to have to share that part. It was all my fault anyway.

"Just so you know, I look nothing like that man that tried to take the Death Note from you. After all, he was confirmed dead on the scene. You are very lucky to be alive, might I add, Light-kun. Now, I bet you are wondering what this case is about. You have been very cooperative thus far and have helped this case by telling me all that you have by at least 36.2 percent, and therefore, I will tell you. Yagami Sachiko-san, could you and your daughter please leave the room? This is confidential information." He really _does_ use percentages…

My mom and sister get up to leave, very reluctantly, but still do. My dad takes a seat in one of the now-vacant ones, and Watari does the same. I readjust myself, my head still uncomfortably numb, but the rest of me fine.

L finally starts. "There have been many criminals dying recently from many different ways, but in more frequency than before, and more concentrated. Therefore, I assumed that the deaths were more than coincidences and thus took on this case. I believe that it is some sort of group—there must be more than one person—and they apparently need to keep track of their kills. The answer? What you have supplied as a 'Death Note.' I actually did have a man infiltrate the hideout of one such group that I suspected early on in the case. He must have gotten the Death Note but dropped it in his escape by helicopter.

"When he found where it landed—at your school—he must have seen you holding it. He needed it as evidence that these were indeed the right men, and tried to take the notebook from you. Both of you were shot by the owners of the notebook and he died; you only fell into a coma. The notebook was taken back and now I actually have enough proof to try to infiltrate this gang again and perhaps even arrest them."

"Then the case is solved? All because Light woke up?" my dad asks in wonderment. He is radiating pride for me.

A short pause filled with anticipation. "Yes, most likely, I'm 93 percent sure," L finally responds. Now I feel the pride too. I feel elated that I could help, that I actually did help in a case that…I still held up because I was in a coma. But I didn't mess everything up and I didn't kill L, which is always a plus.

"Um, L…?" I ask hesitantly.

"Yes, Light-kun?" he replies.

I take a deep breath before asking one last question, "Who…who was the man that you had sent, but got killed?" I really wish to know who I had portrayed as L for so long in my dreams.

"Him?" L responds. "Oh, he was one of my successors before going slightly insane a few years back. He was fine if he didn't come back from that alive, seeing as he did try to kill himself before…But he's also very stealthy and I thought was the perfect expendable man for the job."

"But what was his name?"

"Well, I called him something else, but he went by the name Beyond Birthday." I think I wrote that name down in my dream…

"Did he just faint?"

______

**Author's Note: I realized several things by the end and knew that that BB thing would be hilarious. Think about it, he could still look like that w/o L looking like that, and stuff like that…**

**Anyways, I had fun writing this. Light freaking out is so…well, it's weird but one of my fave things to write. XP And I thought you guys deserved some comedy, and the way that Light was explaining things called for it. Like the "dream" that turned into reality? That was fun to write too.**

**Please review w/ some nice constructive criticism! ^-^**

**PS: Those breaks are roses. Thought it was fitting…**


End file.
